The Descriptive Process

[northmanlogging]

Noted...

 

[northmanlogging]

Cody was running equipment yesterday with his own key. He took it with him of course. Cody headed off today to no-cell-service-land and was gone when the foreman called and said he had no key. I had to drive 2 1/2 hours round trip to bring him a dang key. Who doesn't have a ring of equipment keys a half a dozen Cat keys? I probably have 25 equipment keys in my truck.

Keys? who needs keys? saw wrench and a hammer...

 

[2dogs]

Keys? who needs keys? saw wrench and a hammer...

Borrowed equipment.

 

[slowp]

I have a cat key. Now, how does it work?

 

[northmanlogging]

Borrowed equipment.

Oh... Well I guess if you want to keep borrowing it...

I think my backhoe has a key? otherwise... There's a round thing you have to turn to make the starter work?

 

[Gologit]

I have a cat key. Now, how does it work?

That Cat key works only on very old Cats. It also starts old 966s, graders, skidders, and shovels. Be sure to take video.

 

[2dogs]

While Cody was trenching for the new septic system infiltrators I was burning a brush pile. Most of the wood was tanoak so (I thought ahead) and brought in a Rocky the Range chicken from Safeway. No use in letting a good fire go to waste. Than chicken was done by lunch time, I pulled off a leg/thigh and put it in my cook pot along with some (good quality) ramen. It was nice to have a hot lunch. I could leave the fire so the rest of the crew came up to where I was. Surprise was the order of the day.

 

[slowp]

That Cat key works only on very old Cats. It also starts old 966s, graders, skidders, and shovels. Be sure to take video.

Graders? I would like that. There are a lot of needy roads out there.

 

[Gologit]

Graders? I would like that. There are a lot of needy roads out there.

Just be sure to put it back where you got it. Leave a bag of cookies on the seat. Fuel it.
Oh, if you're going to run a blade on logging roads you'll have to develop the "blade operator's scowl". That's the look that tells the guys that are running over your berm or not taking the time to split their tracks that they're screwing up your program.

 

[slowp]

Just be sure to put it back where you got it. Leave a bag of cookies on the seat. Fuel it.
Oh, if you're going to run a blade on logging roads you'll have to develop the "blade operator's scowl". That's the look that tells the guys that are running over your berm or not taking the time to split their tracks that they're screwing up your program.

That's the same scowl as the low boy driver scowl. Maybe they are the same.

There was a grader broken down and the operator that day was the side rod. He was there so long that the log trucks were using him for a marker. He had a nice nap too.
I think he deserved it.

Graders seem to be prone to breakdowns.

 

[coltont]

They say being a good grader operator back in the day was a real task. Now it's all gps guided jobbys.

 

[Gologit]

Now it's all gps guided jobbys.

Really? All? LOL...not in my neighborhood.

 

[coltont]

Haha not in the machines the small companies have I suppose.

 

[Gologit]

Haha not in the machines the small companies have I suppose.

Not in a lot of the big logging companies either. We might be talking about two different things. Where I work a lot of people call graders blades. I've seen laser guided blades working flat ground on construction projects but I've never seen one working on logging roads. Not in my part of the woods anyway. Maybe the FS uses them but on the private ground I'm familiar with we don't see any advantage to it.
Running a blade on a logging road is usually more like finish work, spreading material, or smoothing out the bumps. A good operator usually just eyeballs the work and adjusts accordingly.
If a new road is being pioneered...a very rare thing these days...the lead Cat cuts to grade by using the surveyor's stakes. The blade comes in beind him and neatens things up so that the trucks can get in and out. Same with spurs and turnarounds.
Maybe back east they use GPS or lasers on logging roads?

 

[coltont]

I don't think they would be used unless you were cutting for the state and the road was a permanent fixture after the logging was done. Most of the independent guys around here have ole faithful Deere or Gallion graders. Here's my preferred grader.

 

[slowp]

Ahh, and around here roads are often pioneered in with excavators, hoes, or whatever you call them. We environmentally sensitive people like to see that instead of a cat. Material gets punched in and compacted (at least when we are around) and not shoved over the edge. I don't think a grader ever comes near those roads.

In the days of lots of money, (when them loggers was RICH) a road was bladed in 5 passes. That doesn't happen now. I do know that the habit of doing a road in short segments just in case the grader breaks down is still a common practice. And no, they are not operated by a GPS unit. How could a GPS unit do The Scowl? Or pull the poor forester out of the snowy ditch?

 

[slowp]

It is said that this guy could pick your nose with that machine. He was doing "sensitive road construction". Any extra material was to be end hauled to a waste area so he was careful to not make any extra waste.

 

[Gologit]

The difference between government ground and private ground road building...budgets.

 

[1270d]

I have never witnessed a GPS or laser device on a grader in the woods. Or a dozer. For shaping up roads quick like one of the road crews we work around uses an old county snowplow truck with an underbody scraper. It works very well.

 

[Gologit]

That's all it takes sometimes. Just a little shaping so it will drain and stay drained. That, and trying to get the truck drivers to split their tracks until things dry out.